PLEASE READ AND SHARE!! I have 24 hours to get as much attention to this matter as I can. If you live in Florida especially, but no matter where you are, share this on your walls, your groups, anywhere that there may be someone who will see it and be able to help a child who is in serious need of help! The story I am about to share with you is unreal, and makes me seriously wonder what Child Welfare in Florida, particularly the Keys is doing..if anything!!
There is a 15 year old girl who needs your help. Every one of you!! This is her story…
One of my best friends has a 15 year old daughter; this story is about her friend, who I will refer to as R for the sake of her privacy. I know this child personally and she is a wonderful kid. She is about to be lost to a system of corruption and ignorance and neglect!
Just over a month ago R felt safe enough with my friend to tell her that she has been suffering terrible abuse. She is an adopted child, whose mother is an alcoholic and repeatedly tells R that she is worthless and that she never should have adopted her because she is nothing but trouble and is basically a piece of shit. She physically abuses her. She has been hit, pushed, and kicked by her mother on a regular basis. She verbally abuses her constantly and has this child feeling like she is nothing. R also disclosed that when she was younger, about 8 or 9 years old, that her mother sexually abused her. This only happened once, but once is once too many! This woman has tortured and abused this child all her life, and R finally had the courage to tell someone.
With encouragement from my friend and her daughter, R went to a school counselor and reported the abuse. CPS was called and an investigation was launched. At this point R was terrified to go home, for fear of what her mother would do to her for telling what she did. After speaking to the counselor and a CPS worker, she was too afraid to go home after school so she went home with my friend’s daughter and was told that she is welcome to stay there as long as she needs to. My friend is willing to give her a loving and stable home, permanently. When R turns 16 she wants to be emancipated so that she can become independent and no longer be in the clutches of her abusive mother.
Later that evening R’s mother showed up, accompanied by the local Sheriff’s department. She was ordering R to come home. (I was present for this, it is not second hand information I witnessed all of this) R became hysterical and absolutely terrified that she was going to have to go with her mother. The officer that came to the house spoke with R and she once again disclosed the abuse and told the officer that she was scared to go home, that she wanted to stay where she felt safe and did not want to be alone with her mother. In the end, the officer agreed that R was in fact safer to stay put and told R’s mother to go home and that the investigation would have to run its course. R thought she was finally free. A couple days went on and R needed to get some things from home, clothing and school items, but was afraid of confrontation with her mother so she called her CPS worker to ask what she should do. She was advised to call the Key West police and have them meet her there to escort her in and avoid any confrontation. (The Sheriff’s department on the Island where my friend lives does not have jurisdiction in the city of Key West where R’s house is) She did as she was advised, and that’s when everything blew up. R’s mother was there, and she refused to let R leave. The Key West police gave no regard for the opinions of the Sheriff from the previous incident, and informed R that she would have to stay with her mother because there was no court order in place to have her removed. My friend’s daughter and son were with R and tried to plead her case for her and explain that she was told she could go home for her things and return but the Key West officers were abusive towards them and treated them as though they were trouble making teenagers. They tried their best, but in the end they had no choice but to leave R there or face being arrested themselves. R’s mother then confiscated her cell phone, cutting her off from any contact with her friends or help of any kind and confined her to her house.
The next day R was able to go to school, and spent the day trying to reach her CPS worker, who never returned her call or showed up to see her as promised. R was forced to go home yet again to face her mother. Luckily there was no physical abuse that occurred while she was home, though there was plenty of verbal abuse. Everyone who knows R was extremely worried for her safety and had been on the phone with the police and CPS trying to advocate for her to be allowed to go back to my friend’s house where she would be safe. The Sheriff’s hands were tied, and Key West police were siding with the mother, and CPS was not returning anyone’s calls or going to see R. The following day R did not show up to school and everyone became frantic. Later that eveing my friend’s daughter received a text from R telling her that her mother had taken her to a Homeless Shelter in Fort Lauderdale three hours away and left her there. Where I come from, that is child abandonment. In Florida, it is not. The mother informed the staff at the Shelter that R was not allowed phone or internet access and nobody was allowed to visit her. She wanted her there and quiet, so that the allegations would simply go away.
My friend began calling anyone and everyone she could think of to get R out of the shelter and to her home where she would be safe and cared for. If her mother didn’t want her, why on Earth would she not allow her to go stay somewhere with people who wanted her?? Nobody helped. They were advised to approach the Guardian Ad Litem program to have a lawyer assigned to R to look into her best interest and work solely for her and her needs. The problem : GAL can’t get involved unless court ordered and requested by CPS. They refused, and decided that R’s allegations were false, and would not issue a removal order or get her any legal support. So R was now pulled out of school a week before Christmas, and spent the holidays alone and isolated from everyone. The fight at our end continued, with endless calls and emails to agencies that are supposed to help kids in need, but nobody would/could do anything. The CPS worker began refusing to speak to my friend at all and out right told her that R was lying about the abuse. R was able to borrow cell phones from residents of the shelter to keep in touch with my friend and her daughter, who refused to give up on getting her out of there. She didn’t belong there she had a home to go to, this was yet another abusive move on her mother’s part. But at least she was safe, and we hoped that while she was there we could get her access to some legal help to either get a removal order or emancipation. But nothing. Nobody did anything!
Two days ago R’s mother showed up at the shelter and pulled her out. She took her home. It was 24 hours later that R was able to contact her friend and tell her that her mom told her that on Saturday she is taking her to Maine and leaving her there with a friend. Someone R doesn’t know. The battle to get her back to my friend’s house continues. R ran away the following morning to a different friend’s house and called the Florida Abuse hotline to report the abuse yet again and hopefully launch a new investigation and get a new case worker. The hotline people set up a meeting with her at a nearby gas station. She was reluctant, but finally agreed to meet with a worker there, but was forced to contact her current CPS worker who told her she needed to return home. R refused, and the police were called. She went to the police station where she filed another report, yet was still forced to go back home.
For the last 24 hours we have been speaking with lawyers, CPS, abuse hotlines, attempted to see a judge at the courthouse but unable to without a lawyer, and no lawyer would agree to take on her case. Family court lawyers have said R has a good case for emancipation, yet none of the free lawyers are willing to take her on to pursue this. So as you are reading this, R is at home with her mother, waiting to be ripped away from her life and sent to live with strangers.
Someone out there knows how to help this child, this needs to reach the media…yet the local paper will not run a story on her as the mother is well known in Key West and people are siding with her because of her reputation as a business woman. I need everyone to please share this. Blogs, papers, news channels, friends, colleagues, anyone at all. The more who read it, the better the chances we have of saving this child. She is a good kid, A student, in the band, never caused or been in any trouble. She did nothing but get a horrible abusive mother who adopted her just to treat her like a piece of dirt under her shoe. There is a reason some people can’t have children, she clearly wasn’t meant to be a mother! Please help her. We have very little time. Once she is gone to Maine, we have no idea if she will be safe, or have any contact with people who care about and love her dearly. Every minute counts right now so I am begging you to please get this out there!
I know this was long, so thank you for reading, and sharing!

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First they came…

First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

~Pastor Martin Niemöller

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